Bosnia and North Macedonia to play pre-World Cup friendly in Sarajevo
The Bosnia and Herzegovina national team will begin their preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup with a friendly match against North Macedonia. The match, scheduled for May 29th, will be played at the Asim Ferhatović Hase Stadium in Sarajevo, as confirmed by the Bosnian Football Federation in a statement released this Friday.
The fixture will be a notable one for European football fans, as it pits the two national sides that inflicted painful defeats on Italy in recent years. The match will serve as a crucial warm-up for Bosnia, who qualified for the 2026 World Cup, and offers a chance for both teams to build momentum ahead of the tournament in North America.
The match will be a reunion of sorts for the players who were the architects of Italy's recent international disappointments. North Macedonia famously defeated Italy in a 2022 World Cup qualifying playoff, a result that kept the European champions out of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. More recently, Bosnia and Herzegovina handed Italy a 2-1 defeat in the UEFA Nations League in September 2024, a result that contributed to Italy's failure to qualify for the 2024 European Championship.
For Bosnia, led by veteran striker Edin Džeko, the friendly is a key part of their preparation for their second-ever World Cup appearance. The match will be Bosnia's first gathering since securing their place in the 2026 tournament, and it presents an opportunity for the team to build chemistry and form ahead of the global finals. For North Macedonia, the match offers a significant test against World Cup-bound opposition as they look to build their own squad for the future.
The friendly is scheduled just days before the start of the 2024 UEFA European Championship in Germany, though neither Bosnia and Herzegovina nor North Macedonia qualified for the continental tournament. The match provides a competitive fixture for both sides during the international window and will be a key test for Bosnia's new generation of players, who will be looking to veterans like Džeko to provide leadership on the road to the 2026 World Cup in North America.
